May 29, 2008

Rules To Follow When Cell Phones Drop Coverage

You all know the drill and how annoying it is. You're on a cell phone call with someone. the connection drops. You aren't sure whose signal was worse. So you both call each other back at the same time and get each others voice mail. So you realize the other person is calling you back (you both realize this at the same time). So then you, and the other person, both decide to not dial again and wait for the other person to call you back. But they are doing the same so a few minutes go by and each of you are thinking that the other person is waiting for you to call them so you both again dial each other and get a busy signal

LET'S STOP THE MADNESS. Let's just follow this simple rule.

If you are on a cell phone call and the call gets dropped, the new rule is that that person that initiated the call in the first place calls the other one back. No dual dials. No dual voice mails. No 3 minute delays to get the call going again. Its really this simple.

if you initiated the call and it drops you call the other person back.

if you received the call and it drops you just wait for the call back.

Please pass this along or forward the link to this post to everyone you know. It will save us all time and frustration.

After yet another dropped call from a friend who calls on his commute home in suburban New Jersey, I thought about issuing the same edict. It's the latest version of telephone tag, and only the cellphone companies win. Thanks for beating me to the punch!

There is perhaps one exception; if both are fairly certain that one of them is known to have a less expensive way of returning the call, then a few extra moments should be left reserved to give them an opportunity to do so.

No, no, no. This is not the way. Always the person who dropped the call should make the call back. The Scovill Protocol (what this is called) is very clear because you don't know how long the droppers going to be out of range (it could be short tunnel) or a long ride in an elevator.

Please stick to the Scovill Protocol - whoever dropped the call makes the call back. The droppee (is that a word?) waits.